The present invention relates to a pocket element for the packing wheel of a cigarette packing machine.
Italian Patent Application N. 3681A/88, to which full reference is made herein in the interest of full disclosure, relates to a packing wheel comprising a number of pocket elements, each having a seat for receiving, at a loading station, a flat precut blank of a rigid hinged-lid cigarette packet, and a preformed group of cigarettes for packing.
The packets are formed by feeding each pocket element along a folding path on which a first portion of the blank is folded to define the package enclosing the group, and a second portion of the blank is folded to define the hinged lid. More specifically, the second portion comprises two pairs of lateral end tabs defined laterally by an oblique edge, and the tabs in each pair are folded squarely one on top of the other and joined via the interposition of adhesive material, so as to define a respective small lateral wall of the lid.
Owing to the shape memory of the blank, the tabs in each pair, initially superimposed with the oblique edges arranged perfectly one on top of the other, tend to slip in relation to each other, especially pending drying of the adhesive material, thus jeopardizing the quality of the finished product.